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Don't Know Mind

This is a quote from the philosopher Bertrand Russell which I like a lot:

"Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance."

Nice thread! I was never a dedicated student of dogma, but skepticism was my home for years, especially after I started reading some Descartes. These days I apply practicality to that frame of mind. The, "What does it matter?" attitude toward both philosophies. Neither one changes anything, I'd still be sitting here in this chair. Gassho, John

Zen allows us to know-experience-embody-realize very clear Truths. Otherwise, what would all that "Satori" be "Satori-ing"?

Oh, it doesn't let us know everything ... like who will win the next Kentucky Derby, or "God's shoe size" or even tomorrow's weather.

Yet we pierce very real and tangible Truths about who we are and what's going on, about birth and death (or the lack thereof), time and space and the stuff of the world (each not simply what meets the eye).

When many Buddhist Masters speak of "don't know mind", they sure ain't talking about just not knowing, being blind and ignorant. Rather, they mean that the gateway to Knowing is to drop from mind all the discursive, divisive thinking that fills the head like pollution. Keep away from the "loves vs. hates" "me vs. not" and "angels on the head of a pin" debate and "pseudo-knowing" or trivia that human beings usually wallow in. Make open, clear, bright and a certain Certain Knowing manifests.

Oh one will not know EVERYTHING in some kind of godlike omniscience but, in a very real sense, One Knows All Things, All Things One Knowing. It is a bit like saying that a sailor on the sea may not know every inch of coastline of all the world's oceans nor every grain of sand on every beach, tomorrow's weather and the like ... but by knowing intimately the sea right under his own boat, the current and waves pushing against his wheel, the taste of salt on his own tongue he knows the ocean. In fact, Zen Knowing is infinitely more intimate than just that, for the Zen Sailor experiences that water-sand-boat-current-waves-wheel-weather-salt-wind-sailor have been just wholly whole all along ... All One Great Sailing.

That is quite enough to Know. Wishing to know more is a bit like asking "where is the ocean" while afloat right in the middle of it ... while being it. And even if we still do not know many things ... like where the sea comes from or where it goes over the horizon or tomorrow's weather ... we still know intimately the sea we sail, the sail-we-sea.